While We're Far Apart [Kindle Edition]

Set in New York, the novel is about broken families in the final years of the second world war. All the characters are well drawn, and I found myself becoming more and more involved in their lives and sorrows. Yet there is joy, growth, warmth and love in this well-written book.

I was particularly happy to read of the relationship between the Jews and non-Jews of New York City. It was lovely to enter the synagogue and homes of the Jewish people. I had never thought before of how much the 'free' Jews of the world suffered, knowing about the appalling happenings in Europe, and unable to do anything about it.

The novel is also a romance of unrequited love between the heroine and the father of the children she is caring for. The stories of several lives run through the novel. I am so glad I read it.

And it is FREE on Kindle.

....decent enough, but depressing and hard on the emotions. I would avoid reading this tale if at this time of year you suffer from SADS, as there is very little that is uplifting about it for most of the way through. But it is not a bad book, despite this, as it is well-written. I'm also not a fan of novels with strong religious themes, and had I known this before starting, I would probably not have downloaded it.

There is a brilliant synopsis from amazon, so I won't repeat that, but for me this tale started off with me thinking 'what a selfish b******' when the widowed father enlisted for WW2 duty in Brooklyn in late 1943. I could understand that he was struggling with coping with two young children following the death of his wife a year ago, but there wasn't a thought for either of them, nor for his elderly mother who made it clear that she was beyond raising children at her time of life. He still went, but it wasn't out of a sense of duty, more a means of escape and keeping his mind and body busy.

So the children who were still reeling from their mother's sudden death now had to deal with the loss of their father, and would undoubtedly have been affected by the rejection - albeit not a cruel one, just a practical one - from their gran, and then having to deal, in the young teen female's case, with an adult that she does not like and that she resents.

Then we had to deal with Penny who steps in to take the children in, allowing them to live in their own apartment - she has been abused, as has her sister, by their parents, so she had issues whilst trying to cope with the kids, and loving their absentee father.

Then we have the Jewish landlord railing at God for taking his wife, but has hopes that he will be reunited with the son of whom he has no news.

I could see these lives actually being lived in the war, which was a depressing time of much hardship, and yes, there is a history lesson in it, but it was wearing and towards the end, I found myself skim-reading. In hindsight, I should have left it when I realised it was so glum - it made me think of long winter days when the sun doesn't even come out - but at the same time, I was drawn into an era that I'm glad I didn't live in. It is humbling, but again, overwhelmingly, IMHO, depressing.

I loved this. It was well written and well researched with rounded believable characters. It made a nice change to have a book with a religious element based in the Orthodox Jewish community, and a refreshing reminder that the label attached to a faith is less important than the actions of the individual.

But all that makes it sound too worthy, and that does the book a disservice. This is a cracking read on many levels. I really empathised with the characters even though their lives and stories were so different to mine. It was a real page turner with realistic character development. It made me cry on the tube several times with its sensitive handling of loss, grief, mourning and the human realities of the Holocaust, and yet managed (improbably) to maintain an atmosphere of love, humour, forgiveness and hope.

How can something so good be free? Snap it up free if you can, but even if you have to pay, it will be worth it. I will definitely be buying more of this authors work.